Social Networking...

With so many social networking sites springing up, blogging is becoming obsolete. Microblogging is the new thing made popular by sites such as twitter where you say what you want to in 140 characters. While twitter gives people the unending need to follow and be followed, facebook gives them apps - quizzes and more to outdo their "friends".
But if you have a whole lot to say, a desire to write and want to remain somewhat anonymous, blogging is still the best. So let me try to do this one more time.

What's in a name?

I would say there is a lot to a name. Shakespeare may have said that "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." but in this world of branding, name is what people will remember.
Well there is a purpose to this post. Recently, I took part in a Bollywood style dance group and we performed at different community events. A few of us girls have started this group and would continue performing and pursuing our passion for dance.

Now, I am looking to name our dance group. I have a few names in mind but looking for more ideas. Do you have any nice dance group name ideas? Just have a couple of conditions

-- Right now, we are just a girls group but we could have guys in our dances, so the name has to be universal.
-- The name has to have an Indianness to it yet appeal to the international audience. Hindi/Sanskrit/Urdu words alone or along with additional English words will work.
-- The name should not be too long, so you can't pick one word from each language I mentioned above.

So, what do you think? Can you be the one to name our group? Please leave your name ideas in the comments section. To actually entice you to think and give out ideas, I will reward the person with the name suggestion that I like the most. You need to have a blog, so that I can leave a comment on your blog if you are the winning comment and get your mailing address. The reward will be an ethnic Indian silk purse perfect for you or the lady in your life.

I hope I receive lots of creative and unique names for the vast sea of minds out there.

The Swastika

Just the word 'Swastika' creates an uproar everywhere in the world. It reminds everybody of Hitler, Nazis and The Holocaust. I perfectly understand and am sensitive to such feelings. But this symbol has now been associated with the negatives only.
The history of the Swastika symbol is very ancient. You can read more here in the wikipedia article. There are many more sites on the web that will tell you its history with different religions. As an Indian, I always looked at it as holy symbol. Indians use this symbol as often as they pray to God. 'Swastika' actually comes from the Sanskrit language and means 'well being' and isn't that what we all ask from God? On all our major festivals, this symbol can be seen abundantly. If you ever visit Indian households here in the US or anywhere in the world, the Swastika symbol might just be drawn with red powder at the doorstep.
So let me tell you the reason for writing about Swastika. I came across a news article related to a Navy building in Los Angeles that is shaped like the Swastika. Apparently, nobody realized it until Google gave us Virtual Earth. So now the Navy is going to spend thousands of dollars to camouflage its appearance. The advocates are applauding the move.

So as a person who thinks of this symbol to be holy, can I say that such a move hurts my sentiments because they are going to distort a sacred Hindu symbol. The makeover is probably coming from the taxpayers' pockets. Since suing anybody and everybody for no solid reason is a trend in this country, can I sue for using money that could be better utilized.

Why should we look at this symbol just with hatred when the symbol long existed before Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler took this symbol, changed the angle, surrounded it by a circle and used it. But this does not mean the symbol itself is bad. It is symbolic to God for us, almost as much as the 'Om' symbol is. So can't we look at this symbol of right angle lines from a different perspective? Can we stop giving importance to Hitler's version of the symbol and focus on the positives, on the feeling of well-being that this symbol was originally meant to provide?

I am in no position to understand the feelings that this symbol evokes in people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. I also do not mean to offend anybody or support the negatives in any manner. My perspective of the symbol is sacred and I am just trying to get across the point that this symbol means more than one thing.

"Love That Accent of Yours"

Seems like customer service representatives are now taught to say "Love your accent" or "Your accent is so sweet" when they don't actually understand what the person on the other side is saying and have to ask them to repeat the word. This is an euphemistic way of saying "You have a weird accent and I do not understand it". I hate when they say that and the next time somebody utters those words to me, I will let them know how fake they really sound.
I come from a different background and completely understand if anyone doesn't understand certain words, the way I pronounce them. But Indians are one of the better English speakers in the world and even though there may be an accent, the bottom line is that our education background is British and we have more British pronunciations. There is a difference between pronouncing words differently and having a heavy accent.
If the representative just politely asks me to repeat what I said, I do not have a problem with that. I do not expect them to understand everything I say especially when they cannot see my face. Don't give me the fake attitude. I can handle the fact that my accent is different from yours but it is in no way inferior. Even the various regions of United States have different accents and there is nothing wrong with that. That is called diversity.
So to all you trainers of customer service people, please just be genuine and polite. That should be enough.

P.S. While searching for some accent related stuff on the Internet I came across this. Similar experience as me and that too in NC.

Spa, Grilling and Poker

My long weekend started off well. My dear husband gave me a birthday gift to a spa so finally I went to one. I had never been to a spa before and never had a massage. It was a good experience. I got a massage, facial and manicure-pedicure. Sitting on a chair for almost 10 hours a day definitely tightened my back muscles. Wish I could just ask my husband to give me a massage once in while and save some $$$.

In the evening we had a barbecue party at our place. We just bought a new grill and were trying it out for the first time. We grilled some chicken and paneer. Paneer is also called cottage cheese but it is more in a block like tofu and not like the one you get in grocery stores. It is generally available in Indian grocery stores. Later we played Poker for about three hours and I won a lot. It surely was fun for me.

Today, I have been on the computer trying to write up essays for my MBA application. Its a pain and I do not have much time. Hope to hit a few holes in mini-golf in the evening.

So far the weekend has been going pretty good. Since we moved here, we have been doing a lot more, hence I am more active here too.

Geeky Wedding Cakes

Look at these geeky wedding cakes. Some are really funny.

I particularly like the one on right.

I am guessing they are chocoholics like me else the wedding cake would have been white like the iMac.

That's me in a nutshell.

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Pool Romance

Yesterday, we had a party at one of our friend's apartment complex pool. The party was full of fun with water games and some barbecue. Added to that was an almost constant scene of a young couple hanging onto each other and locking their lips endlessly. Oh! maybe that's what's causing my indigestion. So what is it about so much Public Display of Affection or shall I say Looooooooooove. I have come across many people kissing and all, but constantly in a pool with so many kids around is too much. I agree there is open culture here, but some limits have to be drawn.
After about an hour or so, the couple disappeared leaving all their things behind. They returned a while later and obviously we all were thinking weird stuff..Ha ha!! Maybe that was because of the Smirnoffs that kicked in.
So that was my weekend, all said it was very fun time.

Still Alive...

I am not sure how many of you read my blog and follow it or feel the lack of posts. If you do really want to see more updates here and I am not doing a good job of it, please leave me some comments, so I know there are people out there who are interested in reading my rants on just about anything.
So lots of things have been happening at my end which kept me really busy. But I am sure no way as busy as this mom of 6 kids. She is almost the same age as me but her hands are just full. She really has a good sense of humor considering her situation. And she is a big hit in the blogging world. She received almost 94,000 hits in one day. Wow!! that's amazing!!! I wish I would have similar luck as her in selling things on E-bay. I am considering selling my collection of hand-crafted handbags and purses which are made in Nepal, a small Himalayan country just north of India and the home of Mt. Everest. Hey, If you are interested, shoot me a comment and I can upload some pictures here.
Remember this post of mine? The girl "plumb tuckered" had a baby girl back in June. The baby was diagnosed with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, but she is doing great now. I am so glad for Cindy and her Baby Claire.

Did Katie Couric go too far interviewing the Edwards?

I came across the controversy about Katie Couric being out of line when interviewing Elizabeth and John Edwards two days after they found out that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer had returned and was incurable but treatable. Here is a link to the MSNBC story on Katie Couric's untimely interview.
After looking at this story and other video clips from the interview on YouTube, I did feel Katie went a bit too far. I agree with the MSNBC anchor that this was bad journalism on Couric's part. She did use the word "Some people" too many times trying to deflect attention away from the point that these are her own questions. People may be curious too know why John Edwards is still on the campaign, but the way those questions were phrased was outright insensitive. And it does feel like Couric is passing judgement on John Edwards for choosing to stay in the campaign.
Some questions like "Are you terrified you might lose your wife" have obvious answers and asking them, according to me is harsh and needless.

India out of Cricket World Cup 2007

(Cartoon by Dr. Sudeep Ross)

So India finally did it, they chucked themselves out of the World Cup even before reaching the second stage of the tournament (unless a miracle - read Bangladesh loses to Bermuda happens). I thought we started off well against Sri Lanka but never used it to our advantage. Ofcourse the batting was horrible. How can a country with the best batting line up on paper never make it work in games? India's exit ends hope of millions of Indian fans for another World Cup.

The saddest part for me is that we never won the World Cup with the World's Best Batsman - Sachin Tendulkar in our team. How is something like this possible? Who knows if he will be around for the next world cup.

I am not sure what the future holds for the Indian team but I can guess lot of angry fans and burning efigies of the players. The indian public does take it a bit too far when they protest and their favorite activity is to burn posters. But for a country where Cricket is religion, I don't see an escape.

Well better luck next time.

Is Sanjaya Malakar bigger than War, Poverty and AIDS

Almost every day now we hear about Sanjaya Malakar, his bad singing, his hair and his luck on American Idol. I have come across several posts, videos related to the so called outrageous idea that he is still in the top ten. One girl has a video on youtube protesting against Sanjaya and claiming to go on a hunger strike and another guy has vowed not to bathe till Sanjaya gets the boot. So I ask these people and all of their kind, is Sanjaya's still being in the competition or worse winning it such a big issue, so as to prompt you to take such extreme steps. I thought the world had bigger problems like the War in Iraq, Extreme Poverty in Africa or AIDs, than a 17 year old kid beating the Idol voting system?

I am an Indian and do have a soft spot for Sanjaya, but I do agree he is not such a good singer and if this is a singing competition, he shouldn't be there. But he does not overshadow my life. Why don't Americans come together for bigger causes, contribute to the problems of the world. I did not hear anybody go on a hunger strike against the War or should I say catastrophe in Iraq. How many of you really know what hunger is? Even I cannot claim I do. Ask the kids in the African nations who do not get one decent slice of bread a day. You take out videos on youtube or protest on myspace, but have you ever wondered how many people in this world know how to read or write, let alone use the internet? Just two days back, I read here that Adult Illiteracy is highest in Washington DC. And I thought, illiteracy was the problem of the so called third world countries.

My biggest disappointment from people in the US is that they do not open their eyes to the world around them. They are so absorbed by trivial things in their own country. They plainly follow their leaders but never question them. You are the country with the biggest eceonomy, you have the power to make a difference and you have a say in how your country runs. Without going over the line, you have the right to question and demand.

So why don't you donate to the ONE Campaign, help somebody read, help in medical causes or simply try and save more 18-20 year olds from dying in the War that started with incorrect information and lies and continues to kill thousands. Leave Sanjaya and such issues merely for entertainment purposes.

Can 2007 make me more active here?

I am back once again after a long hiatus. Sometimes, I just run out of ideas for posts or sometimes I just don't get to sitting down and writing out my thoughts. So let me try once again even though almost three months of 2007 are gone.
After the last Vegas trip which is now almost a year back. we had many more trips and family visits which was a lot of fun. It was a fun year with lots happening at work and home, making new friends, losing old ones and having a cute baby boy come into my husband's family.
Then we made the big move. My husband changed jobs and now we are in a new city with a new life once again. Though it has been three months since we moved to the new place we are still discovering thngs and places. This city is lot bigger than where we last lived so we have lots more to do and lots of variety, not to mention countless indian restuarants, indian movie theatre and huge malls which is what a girl wants ;-)
Hoping the new place inspires me more to write down here.

Vegas Baby!!!

Couple of weeks back, me and my husband went on a vacation to Vegas. We dropped in Phoenix first to spend time with my cousin and his new baby. We were in Vegas for two days and it was fun. Here's my report.
We stayed at the MGM Grand. Nice hotel; lobby and casino were great. We stayed at their west wing tower and the rooms there were modern types with small TV in the wash basin mirror and frosted glass doors to the toilet and bathroom. It was kind of weird but I guess that is what they mean by modern.
The first day we went and got show tickets for Mystere at Treasure Island from the Tix 4 Tonight booth at a discount. They generally have same day show tickets for half price and some at 20% discount. We walked back on the strip and saw some of the hotels. We also traveled via the Monorail. It is good to get a one day pass so you don't have to walk around so much and its cheaper than individual rides. The monorail stations are at the back of the hotels and you still have to walk through the hotel casinos.
We had lunch at the Spice Market Buffet at Alladin which has now been bought by Planet Hollywood and will be remodeled.
The show was good. It is the original Cirque de Soleil show on the strip. In the night we again just walked around, saw the Mirage volcano show which was a little disappointing. We had dinner at a cafe inside Paris. We also went up the Eiffel tower replica and the view from top was great.
We then went to Studio 54 at the MGM. Huge dance club and lots of people. The line to get in was long but you can pass of an extra $20 to the bouncer and cut in.
Next day we spent exploring the MGM itself. We went to the CBS television studio where you can watch shows that the network is planning to broadcast and give your views and opinions. You get discount coupons and stuff if you sign up. We were asked to participate in a moderated focus group for more views on the show we watched. It wa about an hour and we got $50 each to do so. It is good pass-time if you are just not in the mood to walk on the strip. The money covered our gambling losses earlier in the day on the Roulette and Blackjack table. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It is a nice place and the food was good too. In the evening we ventured out to explore Luxor and Mandalay Bay. At Mandalay Bay,we just sat down on one of the slot machines and tried our luck. We sat at a 25c machine on which you can play 5 lines at a time. We made $25 and then switched slots. We then won about a $150 more. There were some double money thingies on the slots. It was great. So in the end of our gambling sessions, we were even.
When we came back out, we saw lots of people on the walkway between MGM and NY-NY. They were there to see the immigration rally which was going to end in front of the Liberty statue. There were thousands of Hispanics and Latinos and it was a scene to watch. It continued on for an hour. We saw the fountains at Bellagio and then had dinner at the Zanzibar cafe in Alladin. Again nice cafe, huge portions.
Next day, we flew back totally tired and exhausted. We again tried luck at the slots after checking out and made $20. I would advise that if you are not a high roller or don't have too much money to spare but want to gamble, you should try the slots. The 5 line ones are good and you should play all lines at a time. Go for the 5c or 25c ones. The ones that say wheel of fortune are good too.
Good Luck!!

I Dream of Jeannie on DVD

Its finally here, the IDOJ TV series on DVD. I bought the first season. It contains 4 DVDs with 30 episodes. I bought the color version. I don't think I had seen more than a couple of episodes from the first season so this will be fun. I saw the first two this weekend and it was nice. The color is pretty good. Technology can do wonders nowadays.
I used to love seeing Jeannie and Bewitched when they used to show it in India in Hindi. :D. I got to watch some English version on TV Land but it usually airs during weekdays so am at work. I am thinking about getting the Bewitched series too. Lets see. I am not usually into spending money on new DVDs except for the very good ones like Lord of the Rings, which to tell you frankly I haven't watched fully.
I love the title music of Jeannie. By the way, if you search for the Jeannie DVD and find some sites offering all season, be careful. I don't think those are the official releases. I think they were recorded and then copied onto DVDs. They are region free and shipped internationally which kind of sets up a warning signal.

Do Friends Last Forever???

What is the answer to this question? Do friends and friendships last a lifetime or is it possible that like Love, we can fall out of a friendship? In a struggle to get an answer I keep reminiscing what my mother used to say about 10-12 years back when I used to spend a majority of my time with friends outside the house. She said "your friends are not going to last forever" and I hate the thought that she might be right.
So why do we grow apart from our friends, those closest to us during our struggles, problems and all types of issues? Those people that you met in school or college and shared every little detail with. Those for whom you would not listen to your parents and family. And Those who knew about your love life before maybe even you did.
In this day and age with such advanced modes of communication, it is easier to keep in touch with people than maybe in our parent's times. Then does "Out of Sight, Out of mind" hold true? Do your other commitments pull you away from your friends? Or is it something else like lack of common interests? Or is it just plain that they don't like you anymore?
Living outside India in a foreign country and far away from your family gets you closer to your friends. But does being closer tear you apart? Or does distance make the heart grow fonder? Does one expect more when you are close friends compared to friends from work? Or do greater expectations cause greater heartbreaks. Does moving a few miles away from your friends mean that you are not part of the inner circle anymore? Or does the distance not matter?
The difference between friends and investments is that you do not expect returns from your friends. But then you do expect appreciation because you do invest your time and soul into friendships. Or is it that one needs to have diversification in friends too? Do friendships not cross barriers of all kinds?
Is it better to stay in different cities and meet/talk occasionally? Or does one just make acquaintances as they grow older?Do we need to work upon out friendships like any other relationship in our life?
Lots of difficult questions to which there is no simple answer.

Weekend Getaway!!

This weekend, we went to Atlanta to meet up with one of our good friends who was coming from India. It was a nice fun trip but now I feel so tired that I have skipped gym for two days. On the way over there we stopped at a subway for dinner. This subway was a peculiar one and I mean that in a positive way. The place was nice and big. The "sandwich artists" (that's what subway likes to call them) were really nice. I mean they really made our subs with care and attention and didn't just throw all the toppings in. They piled it nicely and systematically. I wish I had taken a picture then with my new Sony Ericsson w600 phone. But I just had it for a day, so I didn't remember. These days it is difficult to find such diligent workers especially at fast food joints.
We still got some more furniture to assemble. It never ends. I had ordered a set of occasional tables from >Rooms To Go. The coffee table that came has the screws missing. I ordered the hardware about 2 weeks back. Yesterday, I came to know that it can take upto 6 weeks as RTG had to order it from the manufacturer. So these people think that the customer should sit with an unassembled coffee table for one and half months. Unbelievable!! They do not have a refund policy for such cases. I did get them to refund my delivery charges. But now we have decided to go look for similar screws so that we atleast have something till the actual hardware comes in. So much for saving on the delivery charges.

Interesting Reads!!

Of late, I have been following a couple of web-logs regurarly. One is Plumb Tuckered. The girl seems my age. Her posts are pretty interesting and almost always accompanied by a picture that describes the subject of her post. She does have interesting things happening to her and its just fun to read.
The second is a very famous one by Gaurav Sabnis - Vantage Point. This guy does post a lot and is very well known in the Indian blogosphere. I like his space because it has posts on all issues. Kinda like me, Gaurav generally writes on anything he feels strongly about. His interests seem varied.
I do need to follow a couple of more blogs mentioned by him.
Let me know if you have any suggestions on good ones to follow on regular basis. (Besides the obvious ones).

My King Kong Review

I went to see King Kong over the weekend. It may a bit late but here's my review of it. The movie itself is well made with great special effects but that's about the only good thing I have to say. The story is nothing great or original as most of you may know. The adventure undertaken is very interesting. But when the cast lands on "Skull Island", they are faced with gigantic, enormous sized creatures. Every creature that your imagination can conjure up has been put into a 30-50 minute ordeal on the actors as well as the audience. I am not sure how this is a PG-13 movie with such horrific scenes. The scenes with all these creatures from dinousers to gigantic spiders to octopus type creatures that can suck you up, keep coming at you one after the other. This gets fairly tiring on the viewer offering no space to breathe.
Secondly, the movie is way too long. Over 3 hours for a weird love story seems kind of overstretched. The last part when King Kong lands in New York and runs around creating chaos and then finds Anne has been stretched way too much. So many times, the two just keep looking at each other. My heart didn't even ache for them unlike reviews that say this is a tear jerking movie.
Like they, anything is moderation is never bad for you. King Kong definately needs some moderation.

Green card retrogression issue

What is it? I am sure many of us are still confused about this new ruling that has come out. How are we affected by this? To tell you the truth, all of us from India and China who are on H1-B visas and were hoping to apply for a green card are affected in a huge way unless a major reform comes along.
There are couple of places you can look for answers. One is http://www.isnamerica.org.
Another to check for visa bulletin updates is at the travel.state.gov.
My short understanding of this issue is that, we can all apply for the Labor certification and I-140. Once the 140 gets approved, we cannot apply for I-485/Adjustement of Status (which basically provides us with an EAD so that we then do not have to worry about our work and travel authorization) till our number becomes the current priority. What does this mean. There is a date of late 2001 as being the current priority date. This means that people who had filed before that date now have priority in the process. Each year, only a certain number of green cards are available to each country. If that number has been exhuasted, we have to wait till the next batch opens up. This means that if we apply now, there are 5 years of dates ahead of us. I don't know how big the number would be, but esitmations says that you won't be able to even file for the AOS till the next 5, 7 or even 10 years. This basically means, you can kiss the green card good bye!!
There are still ways you can keep extending your H1, but you cannot change jobs or job profiles which becoems very restrictive and can mean not having career options one would like.
I just hope all the lobbying on part of people from the affected countries and the industry in this country can help reverse this ruling and make the process easier for new applicants.
It is such an irony that all immigrants who are here legally and faihfully pay taxes to the governement are the ones who suffer the most in this process.